§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they intend to purchase an off-the-shelf unmanned aerial vehicle to bridge the gap before WATCHKEEPER enters service; and what is in the in-service date for WATCHKEEPER. [HL1298]
§ Lord BachThe WATCHKEEPER programme will provide an intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (I STAR) capability by integrating a combination of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems into the emerging military command and control digitised network, thus supporting network enabled capability. A formal in-service date will be set at the main investment decision point due later this year but we plan to deliver capability from 2006. Operational requirements are regularly reviewed and decisions on equipment acquisition are made on the basis of what military capability we need and how best to provide it. If we decided there was a requirement to provide this capability before WATCHKEEPER comes into service, it would be normal practice to consider a range of solutions, of which equipment acquisition and, if appropriate, the acquisition of a UAV would be one possibility.